New Year's Eve Banana Creme Pie Puffs - Libby's Final Post @LibbyKlein

 

Happy New Year's Eve!

2025 is over! Can you believe it? Time just goes faster and faster with every passing year. It seems like I've been on the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen blog forever, but it's only been a couple of years. I've loved my time in the kitchen with these amazing authors and it pains me to have to go. But life has gotten very busy and there just isn't as much time to write my Layla Virtue Mysteries as I need to create the depth of story that Layla deserves. I will miss you all commenting on my recipes. I hope you try to make some of them and let me know how they turn out for you.

I'll be finishing up the last few chapters in book 3 here in the next few weeks. The working title is currently When the Levee Breaks. Meanwhile, Gimme Shelter releases in April when the trade paperback of Vice and Virtue comes out. 

 

And you may or may not be aware that Poppy is getting a refresh with new covers! 

These are the ones I've seen so far.

   

  

I’ll no longer be on the blog every other Wednesday, but you have an amazing new cook coming to the kitchen soon! In the meantime, feel free to sign up here for my hardly-ever-sent newsletter to be able to get all my news and nonsense right after I get it. It's the best way to stay in touch because I don't control Facebook or Instagram and we can't keep up with their algorithm changes. As a farewell, here is one of my all time best gluten free recipes that will be sure to amaze family and friends who won't believe there is no gluten.

Libby's Banana Cream Pie Puffs

Yield: 12 large or 24 small cream puffs

 Choux Paste (sounds like Shoe paste) – a most intimidating sounding recipe - is actually very easy. I recommend using a stand mixer for incorporating the eggs.

 

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter

1 cup water

Hefty pinch salt

1 cup gluten-free flour blend that has xanthan gum already added

*if your gluten-free flour blend does NOT have Xanthan gum already added (like Bob’s Red Mill does not) add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum to the recipe

4 eggs

Vanilla Pastry Cream:

 INGREDIENTS:

¾ cup sugar

¼ cup cornstarch

Heavy pinch salt

1 ½ cups whole milk – Not skim milk. 

    If you’re making pastry with skim milk you don’t deserve cream puffs.

6 egg yolks

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract - or scrape one vanilla bean

Later:

1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream

2 Ripe Bananas

 

DIRECTIONS:

 Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan, add 1 stick of butter and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. 

When the butter is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the flour all at once, mixing quickly (the mixture will form a ball). Let it stand for a couple of minutes to cool a few degrees.

Transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer (or keep beating it to death with a wooden spoon like I show here) and add the eggs to the flour mixture, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 

Transfer a large scoop of dough into your fitted pastry bag. Pipe rounds of dough for 12 large or 24 small puffs. Dip your fingertips into cold water and smooth the mounds of dough into pretty balls. They will puff us as they bake but they won’t smooth out like dinner rolls.

Bake the domes for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Poke a hole in the side of each one with a knife and put them back in the oven for 2 minutes. Take them out and let them cool.

Make the pastry cream filling.

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring the sugar, milk, cornstarch, and salt to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks.

Bring the mixture in the saucepan to a boil while stirring continuously. Continue to simmer until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk hot milk into the egg-yolk mixture a little at a time to bring up the temperature of the yolks. Add everything back into the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat while whisking continuously until the custard is so thick it coats a spoon, like soft pudding. 

Now cook it until it boils for one minute. It will be very thick even while hot. Remove from heat and stir in 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract or the vanilla beans. Transfer the custard to a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap down to the surface of the custard. Chill until the custard is completely cold. The plastic wrap won't even cling to the custard it's so thick.

In a separate bowl, beat the 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form.

With a rubber spatula, fold a little of the whipped cream into the custard to loosen it up. 

Then fold all the custard into the whipped cream. Chill again until thick and stiff.

Slice your puffs in half like hamburger buns. and dollop pastry cream in the middle and top with ripe banana slices. Cover with a little more pastry cream and the top half of the cream puff bun. Finish with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Old Time Banana Cream Pie @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m working on the twelfth Key West food critic mystery, which will emerge from its cocoon in 2022. It's too early to have a title or a cover or even a well-developed plot. However, one of the plot strands in this book has to do with the Woman’s Club in Key West, which is a gorgeous old home on Duval Street. I took a tour of the building this spring, and happily received the 1988 version of their cookbook. I had also found an earlier edition of the  book published in 1949. 

Oh my, the recipes and stories in those cookbooks have my mind racing with possibilities! I decided I would cook some of them since Hayley Snow and her caterer mother will be using these books. This banana cream pie is the first I've tried. I chose to make a graham cracker crust, but any crust is fine.

Ingredients

For the crust

One package graham crackers (nine sheets)

2 tablespoons sugar

4 tablespoons butter

For the pie

2 ripe bananas

2 cups whole milk

3 eggs, room temperature, separated

4 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

pinch of salt

2 teaspoons water

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the meringue

3 egg whites (see above)

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat the oven to 350. 

To make the crust, smash or whirl the crackers to crumbs. Melt the butter. Stir the butter and sugar into the crumbs and press this mixture into the bottom and sides of a 10 inch pie pan. Bake for ten minutes and let that cool.

For the pudding, separate the eggs and set the whites aside. Beat the yolks with the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cold water. Heat the milk until it's about to boil, then stir in the egg mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. (About five minutes.) Let that cool a bit.

Slice the bananas into the pie crust. Spread the pudding on top of the bananas.

Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until soft peaks appear. Continue beating with the sugar until peaks are stiff and glossy--about 5 minutes. 

Mound the meringue onto the pudding, arranging it into peaks. (Mine weren't as photogenic as I'd hoped--I think I overdid the beating.)

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes until the meringue begins to brown. Refrigerate the pie for three hours before serving.

Messy but so delicious!

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries. A SCONE OF CONTENTION will be out on August 10! The paperback edition of THE KEY LIME CRIME will be published on July 13.

His and Hers No-Fuss Summer Pies

Happy Anniversary MLK!

Leave a comment today, and you might win the Rolls Royce of ice cream scoops: a Zeroli!

AND...today is your last chance to leave a comment and be entered to win this week's grand prize, a fabo Cuisinart ice cream maker

As you might have guessed from my ice-cream themed mysteries and my ample ampleness, I dig dessert. Among my circle of friends, my reputation as the Dame of Desserts, Sultana of Sweets, Pasha of Pastries means I'm bringing some confection or other to every gathering ... including this cyber-celebration for MLK's anniversary.

This is not a hardship for me. Not at all.

In the summer, though, it's tough to commit to anything that requires hours of oven time. Our air conditioner has a hard enough time keeping up with the Texas heat without also compensating for my cooking. Over the years, these two low- and no-bake pies have emerged as the all-round crowd favorites for summer picnics, barbecues, and pool parties.

Mr. Wendy, love of my life and father-figure to my cats, loves the Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie (possibly even more than he loves me). I, on the other hand, am partial to the Caramel Knowledge Pecan Pie. I'll let you pick your poison ... or, if you're not too worried about sugar shock, make one of each.

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

Crust:

1/2 c. unsalted butter
3 ozs. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 c. chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about 7 ozs.)

Ganache:

1/2 c. whipping cream
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
4 ozs. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3-4 ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 pounds)
2 - 4-serving boxes of instant vanilla pudding
2 3/4 c. milk (skim is fine)

For crust, stir butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and mix in cookie crumbs. Lightly butter a 9-inch pie plate. Press crumb mixture in bottom and up sides of pie plate. Chill in refrigerator about 30 minutes.

For ganache, heat cream and butter in medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts (but do not boil!). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth. Reserve 2 Tbs. ganache and pour remainder over crust. Chill about 30 minutes.

Thinly slice bananas and arrange over ganache. Following package directions for pie filling, prepare vanilla pudding and pour over bananas. Drizzle reserved ganache in a spiral on the pie, then draw a toothpick from the center to the edge of the pie at intervals around the circle. This will create a spiderweb design.

Chill the whole pie for 3 -24 hours.

* Note that you can make this dessert in a 9x13 dish. Simply make a time and a half the recipe (so use 1 1/2 sticks butter for the crust instead of 1 stick). Press crust just in bottom of pan. You'll need 3 boxes of instant pudding.

Caramel Knowledge Pecan Pie

Crust:

1 1/2 c. chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about 7 ozs.)
5 Tbs. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling:

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 c. light brown sugar
6 Tbs. light corn syrup
3 c. pecan halves
3 Tbs. whipping cream
2 ozs. unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Blend all crust ingredients in food processor. Press mixture into bottom and up sides of 9-inch pie plate. Cover crust and freeze while making filling.

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Boil 1 minute. Stir in nuts and cream. Boil until mixture thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate until chocolate is melted and well-incorporated.

Pour hot filling into cold crust. Using spoon, evenly distribute nuts. Bake until filling bubbles all over, about 10 minutes. Transfer pie to rack and cool. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. (The last time I made this, I made Bailey's whipped cream: 2 c. whipping cream, 2 Tbs. sugar, and 1/2 c. Bailey's, whipped until soft peaks form.)



* This recipe, also, can be adapted for a 9x13 pan. Just use a time and half of all measures. (So instead of 1 1/2 c. cookie crumbs, use 2 1/4 c. cookie crumbs.)


Wendy Lyn Watson writes the Mysteries a la Mode, featuring amateur sleuth Tally Jones who solves murders in between scooping sundaes. I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM is available now, and SCOOP TO KILL is available for pre-order.

You can follow Wendy on Facebook or Twitter, too!